{"id":12955,"date":"2016-11-16T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=12955"},"modified":"2016-11-14T14:02:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T22:02:47","slug":"to-see-or-not-to-see-crumb-a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery-inside-an-enigma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2016\/11\/16\/to-see-or-not-to-see-crumb-a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery-inside-an-enigma\/","title":{"rendered":"To See or Not to See<\/em>: Crumb<\/em> a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"crumb-poster\"<\/a>Crumb <\/i>(1994)<\/p>\n

5\/5<\/p>\n

The world of Robert Crumb, the reclusive and reluctant counter-culture comic visionary of the 1960s and \u201970s, is a fiercely fascinating microcosm of idiosyncrasies including sordid perversion, familial dysfunction, and the pressures of unwanted fame. Crumb <\/i>(1994) is the microscope that documents it all, and in doing so it shows us the warped soul of a stymied genius.<\/p>\n

Many of Crumb<\/i>\u2019s <\/i>scenes are similar in effect to rolling over a rotting log and watching in abject wonder as hundreds of thousands of crawling and slithering things creep away; at the end you\u2019re left feeling like you\u2019ve seen something you shouldn\u2019t have, something that was too captivating to turn away from.<\/p>\n

In part, this can be attributed to director Terry Zwigoff\u2019s indefatigable dedication to the film, a film no other director could have made. As longtime friends and bandmates, Crumb and Zwigoff\u2019s relationship is important, as it points to the dedication Zwigoff brought to the project (which took nine years to complete); Crumb<\/i> is a documentary of one friend by another.<\/p>\n

This is perhaps why Crumb himself is so open and giving to the camera; his candidness is almost startling. For example, in one of the opening scenes, we see him inking sketches of his high-school crushes in his notebook\u2014it\u2019s an enthralling scene, and one we feel privileged to watch.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the entire film is made up of scenes like that one. Zwigoff talks with Crumb\u2019s mother and two brothers, and we begin to piece together Crumb\u2019s childhood and, in the end, what makes him the man he is.<\/p>\n

We hear \u201cexperts\u201d slather praise on his art and, at the same time, we hear it dismissed. We see Crumb\u2019s attitude toward his fame and how he copes with it; we see him as a parent, as a child, as an icon. What Crumb<\/i> does best, though, is allow us to make up our own minds. We\u2019re left to decide for ourselves who this man is\u2014is he a hero? A pervert? A genius? We\u2019re able to psychoanalyze him\u2014we feel obligated to\u2014and, in doing so, Crumb<\/i> leaves you with a conclusion that is all your own.<\/p>\n

Like the films of the great documentarian Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven <\/i>[1978] and Fast, Cheap & Out of Control <\/i>[1997], to name only two) Crumb<\/i> is a success not because of shocking evidence uncovered or because its information is inherently pertinent to us (as a Michael Moore film might be) but because it is so intangibly bizarre.<\/p>\n

Zwigoff thrives on the quirks of human nature here, and it is precisely because of the abstract nature and the wonderful uniqueness of his film\u2019s subjects that we are able to derive our own personal meaning out of Crumb<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crumb (1994) 5\/5 The world of Robert Crumb, the reclusive and reluctant counter-culture comic visionary of the 1960s and \u201970s, is a fiercely fascinating microcosm of idiosyncrasies including sordid perversion, familial dysfunction, and the pressures of unwanted fame. Crumb (1994) is the microscope that documents it all, and in doing so it shows us the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-issue","category-november-16-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12955"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12961,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12955\/revisions\/12961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}